Tired of sending fruit cake to your Aunt Maude every holiday? Looking for something more clever than white tube socks for Dad or a bottle of perfume for Mom?

Our staff culled through all the gift recommendations we get from publicists and poured through the gift catalogs for what struck us as the coolest ideas for this gift-giving season.

Here are a few of our favorites:

For desert-dwelling relatives

Send some Yuletide fluff with Let It Snow! holiday greeting cards. Each card comes with a packet of nontoxic, environmentally safe powder that expands 100 times when mixed with water, becoming a fresh pile of "snow." It's cool to the touch and never melts. Take it a step further and send a full jar of Snow to Go! which makes an impressive three gallons of the white stuff.

Cost: $18.95 for a set of three snowy cards, and $12.99 for the jar. (www.basbleu.com.)

For the fashionably charitable

Ethiopian artisans collect bullet casings and make them into simple, edgy bracelets, transforming symbols of violence into beacons of hope. Even better, through Dermalogica's joinFITE program, all proceeds go toward funding microloans for women entrepreneurs in 62 countries. Perfect as a stocking stuffer or unexpected gift for your do-gooder niece.

You want to keep your fingers toasty warm in frigid weather, but they've also got a death grip on your iPhone, which doesn't respond to your screen swipes through all that fabric? Solve the problem with Sensor Touch Cable-Knit Gloves with a pig suede palm patch, rolled cuffs and special fingertip pads that let your fingers do the texting with no problem. The wool/nylon/cashmere gloves come in red, black or ivory in sizes small, medium and large.

Patrick McDonnell has released two holiday books this season featuring his lovable animal comic strip characters, Earl and Mooch, and their sweet and sometimes poignant view of the world. "Bonk! A Mutts Treasury" is a collection of comic strips, and "A Shtinky Little Christmas" is a holiday-themed small book based on a common thread in McDonnell's work, stray pets looking for a home. Guaranteed to warm even the coldest cockles.

As Michael J. Fox writes in the forward of "Mort Drucker: Five Decades of His Finest Work," if you've been drawn by Drucker for the pages of Mad magazine, you know you've truly made it big. Drucker has satirized just about everyone who is, or was, anyone in the world of celebrity. He can make a celebrity look as realistic as a photo, only just twisted enough to also make his version hilarious. If you know someone whose mother threw away their pile of Mad magazines when they moved out, buy them the hardcover, 272-page book. You'll look like a pop culture genius -- kind of like Drucker.

Here's an excellent way to get even more out of your television set: The Roku Streaming Player, with built-in Wi-Fi, gives users instant access to more than 500 channels, along with Netflix, Hulu and many other services -- all in sparkling high-definition. There is plenty here for big-time gamers, too, including "Angry Birds." An inexpensive alternative to pricier devices, Roku is easy to install and is so small that it fits in the palm of your hand. Cost: Three models starting at $49.99 (www.roku.com).

For foodies

Honest, we wouldn't suggest another kitchen gadget for your packed shelves unless we loved it. The Edge Brownie Pan by Baker's Edge is ingenious: It's designed with interior walls so that every batch bakes evenly, and every piece you serve will have chewy, crispy edges (hence the name). The labyrinthine pan comes with a spatula and recipes. Another plus: It's made in the USA.

It was only natural that culinary bad boy -- and comic book fan boy -- Anthony Bourdain try his hand at a graphic novel. The result is the witty and sly "Get Jiro!," a hilarious, sushi-centric sendup of our food-obsessed culture. It's set in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future, where Los Angeles' chef warlords battle for surf and turf, Pasadena has been zoned vegan and sushi-related homicides are perfectly acceptable.

Who says print is dead? Certainly not graphic novelist Chris Ware. The New Yorker contributor goes all out with "Building Stories," an audacious production that defies being viewed on an iPad or Kindle. For that matter, it also defies simple categorization. The sprawling enterprise arrives in the curious form of an oblong box. Open it and you'll discover a McSweeney's toy shop: a four-sided panel reminiscent of a board game, cartoon mini-books, colorful broadsheets and so on -- 14 separate items in all, which magically fit together. One of the most unique reading experiences you'll ever have.

If you crave luxe for less, check out She's So Jetset, a delicious little make-up kit from Benefit which combines go-to beauty tricks such as the lashtastic "They're Real" mascara and "Porefessional" (a balm that minimizes the pores) with subtle shades of eye shadow, lip gloss and powder that should complement most palettes. If you really want to score bonus points with the make-up maven in your life, pair it with the luscious "High Flyin'" lip gloss set.

Some pairings are so perfect one wonders why it took so long to put the two together. That's the case with Metallica (the ultimate metal band) and Vans (the No. 1 skateboarding shoe brand), which have united to give us the Metallica Half-Cab Pro, which rides a bit lower than your regular Vans high-top. It comes in just one color -- black. But, of course, any true Metallica fan probably guessed that. It's the first of what we're told will be a number of collaborations between the shoe company and the band.

Woody Shaw was one of the most brilliant jazz trumpeters, ever. More than 20 years after his tragic death, a Shaw renaissance is under way. Check out the six-disc "The Complete Woody Shaw Columbia Albums Collection", "Woody Plays Woody" anthology of live recordings from the late 1970s and "Woody Shaw: A Trumpet Legacy Revisited," previously unreleased live 1970s recordings culled by the International Trumpet Guild.

Replicas (4 to 6 inches tall) of four warriors from the terra cotta army uncovered 38 years ago in the burial chamber of a third century Chinese emperor are for sale this holiday season. But if you want to really splurge, spring for travel costs so your lucky recipient can see some of the original terra cotta warriors at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum from Feb. 22 to May 27, 2013? Details at www.asianart.org/terracotta-warriors.

Fitbit Zip is a sleek step tracker that also measures distance and calories burned. It syncs wirelessly with your computer and some smartphones. Free online membership also lets you track food, sleep, weight and more.

Can't decide between gold and pave? You don't have to with the classic Duo Pave Link Bracelet. The curved links are cast in gold and hematite with a smattering of pave crystals that will make you the glittering envy of this year's holiday partygoers.

Want to give custom jewelry without the steep price tag? Kendra Scott Color Bar lets you select earrings, rings, necklaces and cuffs from more than 25 silhouettes, then click on the gemstone of your choice to fill in those silhouettes. More than 80 gemstones available for customization.

No more worrying about your pet wandering away from home. Tagg Pet Tracker, an advanced GPS system, clips to the collar and transmits wirelessly so you know your pet's location and activity at all times. Get email and text alerts when your pet wanders beyond the "Tagg zone" that you set. The tracker also lets you monitor your pet's daily activity levels.

Cost: $99.95 (www.pettracker.com), includes tracker, docking station, collar clip and power kit, plus three months of free service ($7.95 monthly service fee after that).